Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Fishin' 2009

OK, this time I will use Google maps instead of that new GPS. That darned thing took me on a 40 mile road trip and told me I had arrived. It was the middle of nowhere. I figure I was 1/2 mile as the crow flies but had to drive about 60 miles back through Paris to get there.

BBQ,Mexican,Steaks, Chicken Fried Steaks ????

Sounds good to me!

That's like going for a drive with Howard from the Sheraton Arlington!

OK, we've had a nice long warm spell and here's a couple of the better ones we caught out of our pond.




if you notice the tournament card in the photos, my pond partner and best fishing buddy are entered into an online tournament on
http://www.ultralitefishing.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=82

Maybe some of y'all should join in the fun! There are separate divisions for ice fishing and open water.

The crappie and the LMB look pretty thin for their lengths or am I mistaken?

I was thinking the same thing. they look really thin, expecially for this time of the year before spawning.

They are thin. You are correct.

Since I'm pretty broke right now, I'm monitoring the situation and trying to figure out what to do about it. Ideally, I'd like to add a bunch of adult BG because my "creel survey" tells me that we don't have enough. Unfortunately, we're in no financial condition to buy and stock much of anything.

The Georgia DNR is of no help at all. Their funding has been cut to the point where they don't have enough fish and they only want to stock new ponds and the price for that has gone way up, too.

We're working on a few different avenues to try to get some help.

Of course, not all the fish we have caught there have been so thin. I'm hoping for a BG spawn that might help us.

Another problem we have is that our pond is part of a perpetual stream system and there is a drain "somewhere" in our pond that allows a continuous flow out of the pond. I can't change that - it's a protected stream. My worry is that a lot of my forage fish are escaping.

Before anybody jumps all over me, please remember that we've only owned this pond for about 6 months and we've never seen it empty and nobody can tell us who built it so, we don't even know where this drain is located exactly or what it looks like. In warmer weather, we'll be diving around to see if we can figure it out. But, the main reason I subscribe to this site and the magazine is to learn more about how to handle these situations so, advice is welcome! But, if the advice involves spending more than $100, it's going to have to wait a while.

No need to jump over you Al!

Forage base might be an issue, but if I recall, less fish go out of the outflow than most people think.

Without knowing more details, I would think that culling LMB and crappie should be a good move to start reducing some of the predator base to leave more food for fewer mouths.

Because cost is an issue, I wonder if it's worthwhile to put up some rot baskets to create maggots to feed the forage base.

Start taking out LMB and every crappie you can. Go catch some adult BG from other lakes or ponds and add them. All that requires is a little time and an ice chest.

Thanks, y'all!

I knew nobody would really jump on me - everybody here is really nice and helpful!

Yep, I do want to try to "transplant" some BG from the other ponds we fish. I'm concerned about mortality in transporting them but, I guess that any that don't make it to my pond can make it to the table.

We've been culling all the bass and crappie that are small but leaving the bigger ones until after the spawn. I think I want the biggest spawn I can get to provide more forage. We've caught only about 2 or 3 bass under 12" and only 1 crappie that was under 12". That makes me think that they're really feeding on the young bass and crappie after the spawns. Does that make sense?

That generally indicates that they're eating their young and not getting enough to eat. You will be missing several age classes in the future.

I wouldn't worry about fish mortality in transporting adult BG. Particularly in cooler spring weather. I'd try to get out there now and catch as many of them as you can while the weather is cooler. The mortality factor will be almost zero and it will be that many more BG spawning here in the next couple months... I used to use a cheap plastic kitchen size trash can. Drill many holes in it and weight it down with something heavy. Sink it into the pond or lake your bank fishing from. As you catch the BG throw them into it. That way they are kept in the water of the lake your fishing til transport time without them sucking up all the DO in the transport container. When you leave, pull the weight out and lift the trash can out. Have a large plastic tub like you can buy at Wal-Mart with a lid. Fill it full of water from the lake or pond to about half way to the top. Pour your BG in and skedaddle. Particularly in cooler weather, unless you have a huge amount of BG they should be good for at least a half hour... I never had issues with BG dying. Only fish I had issues with were BCP but even they usually did fine. Good luck...

Howdy, Al-

No reason to be embarressed by skinny fish-at least they're alive!

As a veteran of the [ongoing]war against skinny bass, I would emphasize the need to remove as many bass as you possibly can, especially all the skinny ones, and same goes for the crappie-especially before they spawn. Yes, a lot of cannabalism will doubtless occur, but your pond will be much healthier with a lot of BG of all sizes rather than a cadre of small bait sized predators.

I would transport in as many breeding size BG as possible early in the year, remove as many predators as possible, especially skinny ones of all sizes, and strongly consider spending some money on tilapia this summer to take some of the heat off your BG population as it works its way to health. I suspect that dollar for dollar, the tilapia will be your most beneficial addition.

Thanks, guys! Didn't mean for this thread to get hi-jacked but I sincerely appreciate all the advice - especially the stuff that's free!

Great idea about the trash-can livewell - I was actually thinking about something like that or getting a fish basket since one of my best "donor" ponds we usually fish from a canoe because it's a tough place to fish from the shore.

We already seem to be missing several "year classes" in our LMB population. That's why I started off saying that we almost never catch anything under about 15" - which is true. But, I have caught 1 that was about 10" and another that was only about 6". Plenty of bigguns in there can easily eat the 6" so, I left it for food.

We'll start working on those BG donations this week! Sounds fun - I love fishing ultralite gear. I've probably got as much UL tackle as I do LMB tackle and about as much money tied up in it (bought back in the days when I had money).

Also, use barbless hooks if your sole intention is to use the BG for stocking your pond. Lessens the chance of hurting the fish. Don't play the fish, hook them and get them in. No point tiring them out playing them.

thanks! I hadn't thought about using barbless hooks but I will. That will also cut down on the number of small bass I catch while fishing for BG.

Bad news - Good news fishin' Report

Bad news was weatherman lied to me - said it would be upper 60's today and was a cold 50 degrees with fine mist and bone chillin' wind.
Near surface water temp 53 degree.
Little to no response to feed and not a hit on pellet flies - foam or AQMX - lockjaw city.

Good news - Before Todd Overton went to lake Comedora Mexico last week, he sent me a new lure/fly product to field test:
"Biogradable fish food lure.
Stays on hook "all-day long
Smells more like fish food than fish food".
Etc...etc....

My fly fishin' Lady tried in out while I stayed with my tried and true AQMX pellet fly.
She caught three nice CNBG in three casts while I loooked on.
She caught more and I finally gave in and sure enought we caught probably a dozen nice CNBG and 3 nice little fat HSB.
Don't know where the big CNBG were hiding - maybe pre-spawn?

If this thing works tomorrow like it did today, with improved weather conditions it will be a winner, and end the bother of tyin' pellet flies.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story....

Better shoot me over some more details George.......!

James and Cason,

Your HSBs are so fat they have back rolls.

Here's a pic of a little cool-weather fishing.

The rest of the story:
Probably two of the toughest days on our ponds ever - not a good day to test a new product.
My fishin' partner beat me about ten to three using the new product "lure".
Her 10 or so CNBG to my 2 CNBG. 1 small HSB and lost one jumpin' trout on AQMX pellet.

She may just be a better fly fisher than me.
If they produce on a bad day, I'm doing further testing on a good day

Nate, you and othrs know that Overton does not advertise hie services or products on the forum so y'all shoot him a PM for details.

davatsa, you look better with the goatee.

advances in modern medicine have yielded extraordinary procedures in head separation

I better look again. Is Dave in that picture?

that is a really healthy looking fish! what does it weigh? It looks like it should have a really high wr.

I don't know, James, her wr looks ok to me, but the heavy clothing does make it a little difficult to tell.